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Vidkun Quisling
"''In as troubled of times as we are in, it is necessary to have a battle proficient political organisation with positive ideas, that can measure up to Marxism in momentum and is in agreement with the future.''" ~ Vidkun Quisling, 1922 Vidkun Quisling is the Fører (leader) of Norway, and the founder of Nasjonal Samling. History Early life Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on 18 July 1887 in Fyresdal, in the Norwegian county of Telemark. He was the son of Church of Norway pastor and genealogist Jon Lauritz Qvisling (1844–1930) and his wife Anna Caroline Bang (1860– ), the daughter of Jørgen Bang, ship-owner, who was the richest man in the town of Grimstad in South Norway at the time. The elder Quisling had lectured in Grimstad in the 1870s; one of his pupils was Bang, whom he married on 28 May 1886, following a long engagement. The newly-wed couple promptly moved to Fyresdal, where Vidkun and his younger siblings were born. The Great War Norway was neutral in the First World War; Quisling detested the peace movement, though the high human cost of the war did temper his views. In March 1918, he was sent to Russia as an attaché at the Norwegian legation in Petrograd, to take advantage of the five years he had spent studying the country. Though dismayed at the living conditions he experienced, Quisling nonetheless concluded that "the Bolsheviks have got an extraordinarily strong hold on Russian society" and marvelled at how Leon Trotsky had managed to mobilise the Red Army forces so well; by contrast, in granting too many rights to the people of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government under Alexander Kerensky had brought about its own downfall. When the legation was recalled in December 1918, Quisling became the Norwegian military's expert on Russian affairs. Rise to power and the March on Oslo When he returned to Norway, Quisling found himself in a country with an increasingly tense political climate, the Labour Movement was on the rise, fearing what happened in Russia might happen in Norway, Quisling traveled the continent seeking political alternatives. His first visit was to Italy to talk with the leader of the National Fascist Party, Benito Mussolini. Quisling was quickly charmed by the Italian Fascist. This was what Norway so dearly needed, he thought to himself. He also saw the effect Fascism had on places where it surged in popularity, it was that unity he so sought for the Norwegian people. As it turned out his first visit would be his last, for when he got on his plain back home he wrote the first draft of what would be his party platform and his party's ideology, Norwegian Revivalism. On the 17th of May, 1921 he founded Nasjonal Samling with the explicit intention to restructure society to better combat the red menace and to lead Norway into a new era of national revival. He started off with only a couple dozen supporters, but that number quickly grew as he did more and more public speeches, addressing key concerns for many Norwegians. Often making use of rhetoric speaking of a great and glorious past, and how the Norwegian people can return to that past glory. Nasjonal Samling would soon number in the tens of thousands, nearly outnumbering the Labour movement. This didn't mean a more peaceful political climate however, quite the contrary. The Fascists and the Socialists clashed in the streets, leading to many deaths on both side, and in 1923 martial law was declared. The King and the government tried to calm the situation, employing austerity measures and the like to help with economic growth, but businesses remained on the decline the political situation would worsen by the day and on a fateful day in 1925, Hirden (Nasjonal Samling's para-military wing) led by Quisling marched on the Royal Palace 30 000 strong. After reaching the palace, Quisling gave the King an ultimatum: "Either you give us absolute rule over Norway or you'll meet the same fate as the Tsar" Fearing a communist uprising that would violently depose him, he was left no choice and so he granted Quisling and Nasjonal Samling absolute rule over the Kingdom of Norway. The Great Purge Vidkun Quisling's first action as Norway's new ruler was to mobilise the Norwegian armed forces to eradicate the red threat. Doors were kicked down, public massacres and mass graves of marxists was a common sight in this period. The state-sponsored persecution of Marxists drove the Labour movement and forced them to found the United Social Front a coalition of Leftist groups organised to commit terror against the sitting Fascist government. The War on Sweden To achieve his chief goal of "Norwegian Reunification", on the first of August 1928, Norway together with the Danish Republic declared war on Sweden. The Swedish army, crippled by the Depression, fell quickly to the Danish Red Marines. A naval landing in Gotland followed, but was repulsed quickly. With the front in Scania stablizing, the Norwegians attacked. Using rapid assault tactics, they quickly occupied Jamtland and almost reached Stockholm before a treaty was signed on Christmas Day, which would later dubbed "The Christmas Humiliation" The Dictatorship Since seizing power, Quisling has worked to improve the Norwegian State and increased arms and military spending drastically, as well as instituting reforms to keep him in power, this including the official introduction of the title Fører renaming the office of Prime minister and expanding his executive powers while at the same time limiting the King's, thus becoming the de facto head of state as well as the de jure head of government, and unifying them with dictatorial power. In addition to the political parliament, where all the members of Nasjonal Samling gathered to discuss, debate and legislate policy. Quisling also established something he called "Yrkeslagtinget" or the Labour Union Parliament, where self-governed trade unions under the state's control is gathered to discuss policy pertaining to industry, to direct labour and capital interests toward the common good with the state as mediator.